The "Fail-Safe" Program 

 for Prevention of Losses of Oceanographic Equipment 



George L. Poudrier Richard L. Stewart 



U. S. Naval Weapons Laboratory U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office 

 Dahlgren, Virginia Washington, D. C. 



Losses of oceanographic instruments over the past several years have 

 proven expensive to the Oceanographic Office, not only because of the 

 cost of replacing the instruments themselves, but because of the 

 ensuing loss in ship time, failure to acquire needed data, and delays 

 in completing programs. At the direction of the Deputy Commander for 

 Oceanography, the "Fail-Safe" program was initiated to develop equip- 

 ments and methods which would help in reducing these losses. The 

 objective of this paper is to present the results of work to date on 

 the program, describe developments now in progress, and identify some 

 of the problem areas which must be approached in the future. 



In first approaching this problem it became apparent that the logical 

 steps to be followed were: 



1. Determination of the causes of losses 



2. Study of the cost of loss as a part of total cost of data 

 collected. 



3. Selection of areas where development was needed to provide 

 the most immediate and rewarding solutions. 



To discuss these points in the same order, determination of causes of 

 losses was undoubtedly the most important, and unfortunately the most 

 neglected. 



An early expert on the subject once said: 



And now remains 



That we find out the cause of this effect. 

 Or rather say, the cause of this defect. 

 For this effect defective comes by cause. 



Z94 



